1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to container tracking, and more particularly, to identifying a particular vessel on which a container is loaded.
2. Description of Related Art
Costs from misplaced and stolen cargo are a large expense for shippers and manufacturers. For example cargo can be mixed up in a shipping yard loaded on an incorrect vessel and have to be sent back on a return trip. In another example, cargo can be stolen from a shipping yard while being manually marked as loaded on a vessel.
The advent of GPS (Geographical Positioning Systems) systems provide location information that can be used to track vessels. An AIS (Automated Identification System) system can check location information of a vessel against an intended route to make sure the vessel is on course. Also, the AIS system can aid in navigation and help prevent collisions with nearby vessels. Problematically, the AIS system provides information about the vessel in real time, but not information about the cargo itself.
Typically, the cargo is scanned at a shipping yard when loaded sent, received, and unloaded. Thus, there are blind spots between scans. Additionally, scanning information is traditionally provided by the shipper, a secondary and possibly unreliable source.
Therefore, what is needed is to determine which vessel a container is loaded on. The determination can compare location information received from the container and compared against location information received from the vessel.